Indonesia Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Indonesia-Australia: all borders have been agreed upon bilaterally, but a 1997 treaty that would settle the last of their maritime and EEZ boundary has yet to be ratified by Indonesia's legislature; Indonesian groups challenge Australia's claim to Ashmore Reef; Australia has closed parts of the Ashmore and Cartier Reserve to Indonesian traditional fishing and placed restrictions on certain catches

Indonesia-Malaysia: territorial disputes resulting from competing interpretations of colonial era documents have prevented a full demarcation of the land border where there are several areas under dispute; negotiations continue; the two countries have not agreed to any EEZ boundaries; disputed maritime areas includes the Ambalat block in the Celebes Sea

Indonesia-Palau: discussions on reaching an agreement on a partial EEZ boundary line continue 

Indonesia-Papua New Guinea:  Papua New Guinea ratified an agreement governing the border in 2023; migrants and separatists crossing the porous 760-kilometer (472-mile) border have complicated diplomatic relations

Indonesia-Philippines:  have ratified EEZ boundary agreements that were initially signed in 2014

Indonesia-Singapore: continue to work on finalizing their 1973 maritime boundary agreement by defining unresolved areas north of Indonesia's Batam Island

Indonesia-Timor Leste: as of 2023, negotiations were ongoing on remaining two segments of the land border under dispute (Bidjael Sunan-Oben and Noel Besi-Citrana) and the maritime borders from Batugade to Atauro and from Atauro to Jaco 

Indonesia-Vietnam: agreed on a continental shelf boundary agreement with Vietnam in 2003 which produced a border around 250 nautical miles long, but the two countries continue to negotiate an agreement regarding EEZ delimitations in the South China Sea

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 5,684 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2022)

IDPs: 72,000 (inter-communal, inter-faith, and separatist violence between 1998 and 2004 in Aceh and Papua; religious attacks and land conflicts in 2007 and 2013; most IDPs in Aceh, Maluku, East Nusa Tengarra) (2022)

stateless persons: 866 (2022)

Illicit drugs

major transit point and destination for illicit narcotics; a destination for methamphetamine, ecstasy, and other illicit drugs; methamphetamine production facilities within Indonesia